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Once you pass Helmsdale, you are entering Caithness, a place of jagged gorse-and-grass-topped cliffs hiding tiny fishing harbours. Scotland's top corner was once Viking territory, historically more connected to Orkney and Shetland than the rest of the mainland. It’s a mystical, ancient land dotted with old monuments and peopled by folk who are proud of their Norse heritage.
These are our favorite local haunts, touristy spots, and hidden gems throughout Caithness.
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Dating from between 4000 BC and 2500 BC, these burial chambers are hidden in long, low mounds rising from an evocatively lonely moor. The Long Cairn measures 60m by 21m. You can enter the main chamber, but must first crawl into the well-preserved Round Cairn, which has a corbelled ceiling. From a turn-off a mile east of Lybster on the A99, the cairns are 4 miles north. You can continue 7 further miles to approach Wick on the A882.
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Eight miles east of Thurso a minor road leads to dramatic Dunnet Head, the most northerly point on the British mainland. There are majestic cliffs dropping into the turbulent Pentland Firth, inspiring views of Orkney, basking seals and nesting seabirds below (it's an RSPB reserve), and a lighthouse built by Robert Louis Stevenson’s grandad. Two cottages are available for rent (see www.dunnetheadlighthouse.com).
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The Castle of Mey, a big crowd-puller for its Queen Mother connections, is 6 miles west of John O’Groats. The exterior is grand but inside it feels domestic and everything is imbued with the Queen Mum's character. The highlight is the genteel guided tour, with various anecdotes recounted by staff who once worked for her. In the grounds there’s a farm zoo, an unusual walled garden that’s worth a stroll and lovely views over the Pentland Firth.
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Tracking the rise and fall of the herring industry, this great town museum displays everything from fishing equipment to complete herring boats. It’s absolutely huge inside, and is crammed with memorabilia and extensive displays describing Wick’s heyday in the mid-19th century. The Johnston collection is the star exhibit. From 1863 to 1977, three generations photographed everything that happened around Wick and the 70,000 photographs are an amazing record.
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At Ulbster, 5 miles north of Lybster, this staircase cut into the cliff provides access to a tiny natural harbour, with an ideal grassy picnic spot, ringed by vertical cliffs and echoing with the cackle of nesting fulmars. The path begins at the end of the minor road opposite the road signposted ‘Cairn of Get’. There's a cafe at the top.
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Just west of the Dunnet headland, the sweeping curve of Dunnet Bay offers one of Scotland’s finest beaches, backed by high dunes and a campsite. Rangers organise guided walks here in summer. At the southern end of Dunnet Bay lies the tiny harbour of Castlehill. Here a heritage trail explains the evolution of the local flagstone industry.
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Though it can no longer claim to be the most northerly whisky distillery on mainland Scotland (that goes to the upstart Wolfburn in Thurso), friendly Pulteney still runs excellent tours twice or more daily (normally at 11am and 2pm), with more expensive visits available for aficionados. Its Stroma whisky liqueur is dangerously more-ish.
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This museum, just over a mile north of Dunbeath, recreates crofting life from the mid-1800s to WWII. It's in an 18th-century Caithness longhouse with a stable and byre at either end, thatched with local rushes; the nearby barn has its original wooden cruck roof. The museum's tearoom serves good soup and home baking.
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Six miles to the northwest of Lybster and a mile off the A9, these 30 standing stones date from around 2000 BC. The crumbling monuments still capture the imagination with their desolate location. Nearby are the remains of a burial cairn, another millennium older.